will.i.am ‘Still Has That Fire’ On ‘This Is Love,’ Eva Simons Says

For his song “This Is Love,” will.i.am enlisted Dutch singer Eva Simons to add some powerhouse vocals to the raging party track. The searing dance production is highlighted by Simons’ diva-tude as her voice soars over will’s creation, full of big chants, bumping beats and dirty synths.

Simons had already proved she had hook potential appearing on Afrojack’s 2010 dance-floor anthem “Take Over Control,”
and given will’s history of enlisting female pop singers to add a bit of sexy flair to his songs, Simons was a perfect muse to help shape his latest dance-pop track.

[ video unavailable on this device ]

“He is super creative, and we kind of have the same energy: We can’t sit still. We were in the studio, and he had this track,” Simons recalled to MTV News about working with the Black Eyed Peas mastermind. “And he’s like, ‘Yo, Eva, would you like to do this song with me?’ And we had been recording a couple tracks before, so he knows what I’m capable of and he trusts me, and we don’t really know each other for that long, but he trusts me.

“I recorded it,” she continued. “And he mixes it straight away from his laptop … and it’s done. That’s so beautiful — not only is he super creative and knows what he wants, but he also sees when other people are creative as well. He’s not afraid to collaborate.”

This particular collaboration also included Swedish House Mafia’s Steve Angello. “It’s really a club-banger,” Simons said, adding that will included “some piano intro in there and violins. … He’s always creative. It doesn’t [just] work for the clubs, it works for the radio, it’ll also work on a big festival, like him on the piano, some strings, some live drums.”

will and Simons recently shot a video for the track, and she had this tease for fans when asked to give some hints: “Fireworks. Just like, ‘What world is this? Like, where are we?’ and ‘What season is this?’ ” she said. “It’s mad. It’s pretty awesome.”

Much of that awesomeness, she adds, stems from will directing the clip himself. “I’m just surprised. I’m not surprised, actually, ’cause that’s him,” she said. “He is also a super-geek. I’m a super-geek. I love technology, and he was like, he was directing the video and he was doing the motion-control of the camera and everything. He knows his stuff. It was pretty awesome to see.”

Simons continued that it was refreshing to see that even with all his years in the industry, he still loves to do it. “I just admire him,” she said. “After all those years he still has that fire, and that’s just beautiful. But I feel like — ’cause I was big fan of the Black Eyed Peas, and I still am — and he seems like he’s the same guy still that I see before.”

Their song is expected to appear on will’s long-teased solo album, #willpower,
which also features Britney Spears, Jennifer Lopez, Mick Jagger and Nicole Scherzinger. No release date has been set for the album.